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China’s foreign trade value gained 28.5% on year over January-April to reach Yuan 11.62 trillion ($1.79 trillion), with exports up more substantially by 33.8% on year to Yuan 6.32 trillion and imports up 22.7% on year to Yuan 5.3 trillion, according to the latest data from the country’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) announced on May 7.
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Steel-sheet product sales among coil centers across Japan during fiscal 2020 (April 2020-March 2021) plunged by 14.6% on year to 13.67 million tonnes, the lowest ever, according to the latest data by industry grouping the Zenkoku Coil Center Kogyo-kai (ZCCK). Industry insiders blamed the sales decline on the severe drop in the first half of the fiscal year as Japan’s economy slowed under the weight of the coronavirus.
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Global automobile production by Japan’s eight major automakers during the fiscal 2020 (April 2020-March 2021) fell to a nine-year low, or recording a 12.2% on-year decline to about 23.12 million units, according to the latest data released by the automakers, though the on-year decline was not as steep as the market had expected.
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Very rarely, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released a statement both in Chinese and English on May 6, the first working day after the Labour Day holiday over May 1-5, notifying the public of the decision “to indefinitely suspend all activities under the framework of the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue”.
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Japan’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for its manufacturing industry for April rose by another 0.9 basis points on month to 53.6, indicating that Japanese manufacturers expect a stronger degree of positive sentiment regarding the year-ahead outlook for output, according to data from index compiler au Jibun Bank Corporation, released on April 30.
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Japan’s carbon steel exports during fiscal 2020 (April 2020-March 2021) declined by 12.8% on year to some 20.26 million tonnes, according to the latest data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation on April 30, a fall the JISF attributed to the global coronavirus outbreak.
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China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing industry inched down by 0.8 basis point on month to 51.1 for April, though having persisted in the expansion zone since March 2020, and all the key sub-indices including production and new orders were also above 50, according to the latest release by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on April 30.
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Two friends in Beijing shared their pictures taken in the deserted Shougang steelworks in Shijingshan, on the outskirts of western Beijing, through WeChat Moments recently. No one in the Chinese steel industry would have foreseen ten years before that the site could have turned into a local tourism spot with all the long-deserted blast furnaces clearly seen in the background of pictures.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated steelmaker, has decided to add Yen 10,000/tonne ($92/t) onto its commodity-grade heavy plate list price for spot sales and to the construction steel processors in May, just to reflect higher input costs, a company official confirmed on April 27.
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China’s sizable industrial firms posted a 137% on-year gain in their gross profits over January-March, which was also up 50.2% from Q1 2019, confirming their significant improvement in their financial performance, according to the release by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on April 27.
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Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, Japan’s top electric-arc-furnaces steel producer, targets to grow its carbon finished steel sales by 24% on year to 2.6 million tonnes over fiscal 2021 (April 2021-March 2022), mainly to respond to the higher steel demand, a company director shared on April 27.
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Japan’s steel value chain including steel producers and end-users expects little impact of the third state of emergency on their operations, even though the latest partial lockdown will be running over April 25-May 11, affecting Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto and Hyogo in western Japan.
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Japan’s crude steel output during fiscal 2020 (April 2020-March 2021) including both carbon and special steel declined to a new low since fiscal 1969, down 15.9% on year to about 82.8 million tonnes, according to the latest data from the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) released on April 22.
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China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) reiterated at a press conference on April 20 that the country's crude steel will be cut this year and it has been formulating execution plans, which, to some extent, cleared the mist in and out of China on whether steel output cut for 2021 is still on China's agenda.
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China has the solid foundation to maintain stability in the consumer goods and industrial materials prices, Meng Wei, spokesperson of the country’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), commented on April 19 at the press conference on the first-quarter domestic economic performance.
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Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, Japan’s leading electric-arc furnace producer, is adding Yen 5,000-13,000/tonne ($46-120/t) to its list prices of carbon steel coils and sheets and square pipes for May domestic sales, to narrow the gap with international market prices, the company announced on April 19. However, the mill is keeping long product prices unchanged to wait for its previous increase to be digested.
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Domestic sales of carbon steel products in Japan in February totalled 3.11 million tonnes, up 3.8% on year and made for the third consecutive monthly on-year rise, according to the latest data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation on April 16, suggesting that the country’s steel demand is steadily recovering. The February sales were down 5% from January, however.
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When over a dozen of journalists dialled into the press conference of the World Steel Association on April 15, “carbon emission” and “regionalization” had been the most repeated words in the 40-minute discussion though the purpose of the call was about the association’s latest Short Range Outlook (SRO) that is usually released twice a year in April and October respectively.
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Chinese prices of bulk commodity products including petroleum and ferrous and non-ferrous metals have no basis for long-term growth, Liu Aihua, spokeswoman of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated at a press conference following the release of the country’s Q1 economic performance data on April 16.
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China’s fixed asset investment (FAI) grew 25.6% on year over January-March to approximately Yuan 9.6 trillion ($1.47 trillion), which was also up 6% from Q1 2019, and among the total, that in the property market also soared 25.6% on year or 15.9% higher than two years ago, according to the release by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on April 16.
